Envac’s automated waste collection systems revolutionise urban waste management, creating cleaner environments and smarter cities. By reducing air pollution, lowering carbon emissions, and eliminating the unsanitary conditions associated with traditional waste collection methods, the system ensures a more efficient, hygienic, and sustainable approach to waste management.
The world is facing a growing waste challenge. As the global leader in pneumatic waste collection systems, Envac is transforming how waste is managed. By eliminating the noise, mess, and inefficiencies of traditional collection methods, this innovative solution ensures a cleaner, more efficient process. Simply deposit sorted waste into an inlet, and it is swiftly transported through underground pneumatic tubes to a central collection station, where it is compacted and sealed in containers.
This technology is revolutionising waste handling in airports, residential communities, healthcare facilities, shopping malls, and other urban spaces. The impact? Fewer waste trucks on the streets, lower labour costs and occupational risks, significantly reduced transport emissions, and cleaner, healthier public spaces. Trusted worldwide, Envac is making cities and key facilities more efficient, sustainable, and liveable.
Ian Pritchard and the Envac team are making that a reality in Australia’s first fully automated waste system! This groundbreaking project in Maroochydore sets a new standard for urban living, integrating sustainability with innovation. No more garbage trucks clogging streets-just a cleaner, greener, and smarter city.
The future of smart cities is here!
video kindly produced by SunCentral Maroochydore.
Amanda Yeates, Former CEO of SunCentral, Australia, shares her perspective on bringing the Envac automated waste collection system to Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast. She discusses how the community and stakeholders responded to the project, and how the system supports the city’s ambitions for sustainability, innovation, and smart urban planning. Amanda also highlights the benefits the solution brings in terms of efficiency, cleanliness, and user experience, while reflecting on what makes the city stand out in Australia.
Sunshine Coast Council is Australia’s fifth largest municipality located 100 km north of Brisbane. Envac is now operating Australia’s first ever pneumatic waste collection system for domestic waste in the city centre.
Sunshine Coast Council initiated an ambitious development of vacant land in the heart of Maroochydore. A sustainable city of the future was envisaged with large numbers of people living and working in the new urban centre. The new Maroochydore CBD was designed for pedestrians, bicycle access and public transport. This meant that traditional methods of collecting waste via large trucks were not viable anymore.
Envac designed the underground pipe network and other infrastructure that removes waste to a collection station on the edge of the precinct.
The system was designed to take the full waste load from the entire CBD. The pipe network was installed underground before the roads and footpaths were constructed.
Envac supplied the specialist pneumatic waste collection equipment. It was installed in the new collection station by local contractors under the supervision of Envac. The system was completed and commenced in operation in June 2021.
tons/day
designed collection capacity when completed and in full operation
separate waste fractions
Rest/Recyclables
waste inlets
when completed and in full operation, conveniently located through out the precinct
litterbins by Envac
connected to the underground pipe network and automatically emptied
Public litter bins, for General waste and Recyclables, are cleared every day without rubbish trucks. The system is hermetically closed, which eliminates odour and vermin, wheelie bins are never seen.
In the commercial buildings cleansing staff dispose of waste into conveniently located inlets on the ground floor. Waste from those buildings is removed automatically by the system up to 4 times per day depending on usage.
The Envac system will help improve the area’s infrastructure as waste is collected and transported in an underground pipe network, not on the streets. This will reduce waste collection traffic with heavy vehicles remarkably, and make the living environment quieter, cleaner and safer.
The first phase of the system, which includes the collection station, was completed in 2021. The system has been successfully in operation since June 2021.
New buildings are being connected to the AWCS regularly and the next stage of the CBD development is expected in early 2026.
The entire development will be completed in 2035.
The Maroochydore City Centre, spanning 53 hectares on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, is setting a new benchmark for smart and sustainable urban development in Australia. It is the nation’s first large-scale greenfield city centre to integrate an underground automated waste collection system as part of its core infrastructure.
In a groundbreaking development for hospital logistics, Envac has unveiled its innovative technology at the newly inaugurated logistics platform of CHU Rennes University Hospital. This facility has set a new standard in Europe for automated and sustainable hospital logistics by introducing the world’s first integrated system that combines pneumatic transport of infectious waste with on-site treatment using state-of-the-art technology.
Envac’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Naz Habashian, represented the company at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, as part of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) business delegation. Her involvement underscored Envac’s leadership in advancing sustainable, circular, and resilient cities on a global stage.
Improving hospital efficiency and hygiene by eliminating cross-infection risks and streamlining waste and soiled linen handling. Replacing wheel-based corridor transportation with our sealed and efficient vacuum transportation system will free up valuable space, improve workflow, and ensure a cleaner environment for patients and healthcare professionals.
Australia’s first underground automated waste collection system for a CBD was officially opened on 8 June 2021 in the new Maroochydore City Centre on the Sunshine Coast. Waste and recyclables from buildings and public bins in the new Maroochydore City Centre will move by vacuum pressure at up to 70kmh through a 6.5km network of underground pipes to a control centre on the perimeter of the CBD. The existing AWCS underground pipe network will be progressively extended into future stages as the city centre is developed.
Australia got its first underground automated waste collection system from Envac in the Maroochydore City Centre on the Sunshine Coast. This project is one of the ambitious developments that make the new Maroochydore City one of the smartest cities in the country. It is another step towards achieving the vision for the Sunshine Coast Council to be Australia’s most sustainable region. In the interview with Today Show Australia, the significance of reducing pressure on landfill, promoting recycling, and building a smart city is featured. Also, Envac’s Operations Engineer, Scott Mackie, explains how the system works in the interview. Watch now and share your thoughts with us.